Rosatom CEO Sergei Kiriyenko’s remarks at the plenary meeting of the 59th IAEA General Conference, Vienna, September 14, 2015
Mr President,
Please accept our congratulations on your election as President of the 59th session of the General Conference. Please be assured of the Russian delegation’s wholehearted support.
We welcome Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados and Turkmenistan as new IAEA members.
1. In June this year, Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking at a meeting with IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano on the sidelines of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, reaffirmed Russia’s absolute commitment to strict compliance with its non-proliferation obligations and close cooperation with the IAEA.
It is our firm belief, which has been confirmed by years of experience, that the nuclear industry is a strategic sphere with long lifecycles and an absolute focus on security. It cannot and must not depend on the political situation.
It is extremely important in this context that the IAEA maintains its high professional standards.
2. As you know, the Soviet Union (Russia) was at the inception of the IAEA, and our position of principle has not changed since then. As always, we are willing to support the IAEA with practical contributions.
Despite a difficult economic situation, Russia has contributed financially to all IAEA activities. In aggregate, Russia’s annual extrabudgetary contribution has become comparable to its annual contribution to the regular IAEA budget.
We have taken a principled decision to continue to contribute to the IAEA’s Nuclear Security Fund in 2016-2021. We have more than doubled federal budget allocations for the implementation of the National Programme for the Technical Support of the IAEA Safeguards. We have been gradually increasing our contribution to the Technical Cooperation Fund.
For the past 15 years, we have been supporting and co-financing the implementation of Russia’s INPRO initiative: the international project on innovative nuclear reactors and fuel cycles, which over 40 countries have joined.
We welcome the agreement signed with Kazakhstan to establish the IAEA Low Enriched Uranium (LEU) Bank. In support of this project, in the summer of 2015 Russia signed a transit agreement with the IAEA. These two agreements are designed to facilitate the initiatives on the guaranteed supply of nuclear fuel, which were implemented for the first time in Russia. We maintain a guaranteed physical supply of LEU at the International Uranium Enrichment Centre in Angarsk.
Acting upon the request of the Vienna diplomatic corps, we continued the programme of visits to Russian nuclear energy facilities for the IAEA ambassadors. We consider these visits as our support to the IAEA activities stipulated in its Statute in terms of transparency and the exchange of information on the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. In July 2015, we organised a technical tour of the Rostov Nuclear Power Plant and the Atommash Plant in Volgodonsk, which is one of the world’s largest nuclear engineering facilities. The ambassadors could see the operation of Unit 3 and Unit 4, still under construction, which have the latest VVER water-cooled reactors.
3. Mr Chairman,
Russia makes sure that its complies with all of its international obligations. We work with all countries in strict compliance with the requirements of nuclear non-proliferation and nuclear safety. We will continue to do so in the future. We hope that other countries will approach the development of nuclear energy, fully realising their measure of responsibility.
On a separate note, I’d like to focus on our close cooperation with the IAEA Secretariat to improve the system of safeguards. Developing IAEA safeguards is one of our political priorities. For us, it is essential to provide IAEA safeguards on a non-discriminatory basis, without prejudice, using objective criteria and based on the IAEA governing bodies’ decisions.
We believe that the completion of the IAEA report on the Fukushima-1 accident was a milestone in this regard. Russian experts were involved actively in developing this document. The report will allow us to finally turn this sad page in the history of nuclear power engineering.
Other key events include the adoption of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) to resolve the situation surrounding the Iranian nuclear programme, and a roadmap between the IAEA and Iran to sort out past and current outstanding issues regarding Iran's nuclear programme. The IAEA will be in charge of these important issues.
For our part, we in Russia immediately started to work on the practical matters outlined in the JCPOA. We have already done a lot of preparatory work. We work closely with our Iranian counterparts on drafting a technical project to reconfigure the Fordow plant, so that it can produce stable isotopes. The Russian side will fulfill all of its obligations under the JCPOA.
4. Mr Chairman,
This General Conference is held during an auspicious year. This year, we are celebrating the 70th anniversary of the nuclear industry in Russia.
From a historical perspective, 70 years is not much. However, major changes have occurred over these years, and the impact of the global nuclear power industry on the international economy and modern way of life cannot be overestimated. During these years, nuclear power engineering experienced not only spectacular rises, but crises as well. However, it always returned to its place and resumed its progress. This is what is happening now. Nuclear power engineering has not just returned to its prior-to-2011 state, but is evolving and changing. Today everything is all about a new market, new circumstances and new opportunities. We are trying to build our work in line with this market logic.
First, clearly, there is an increased focus on security. This is an obvious statement, and it is a priority. Late last year, along with our Indian colleagues, we handed over the first NPP Kudankulam unit for warranty-covered operation. This unit complies with the latest so-called post-Fukushima safety requirements.
Second, there is a clear extension of the nuclear power engineering lifecycle. New materials and new technological solutions become available. The lifecycle of nuclear industry facilities has increased significantly. For example, the Hanhikivi NPP, which we are about to begin building in Finland, is designed to remain operational at least until 2084, after which its service life may be extended. Construction and decommissioning is a process that lasts over 100 years.
Third, the nuclear power geography has changed, which is confirmed by official IAEA forecasts. The nuclear power centres shift from the West to developing countries in Asia, the Middle East and Latin America. Countries in these regions make their choice in favour of nuclear energy, which makes vendor countries particularly responsible, as now they need to provide access to the benefits of nuclear power not only for themselves, but also for new countries that opt for nuclear power. We are fully aware of the responsibility that rests with Russia. Our order-book includes contracts to build 23 nuclear power plants in 10 partner countries.
The fourth change is the emergence of a generally recognised nuclear industry final product, which is the price per kilowatt-hour of produced electricity. This adds many more aspects to the negotiations. In addition to the cost of equipment, design solutions and infrastructure, we now also discuss maintenance costs, maintainability, fuel supplies, decommissioning and waste management. We are following this logic to hold talks not only under our build-own-operate (BOO) arrangements, as is done for the first time in Turkey, but also under EPC contracts.
Fifth, customers who take on the path of nuclear power development now come up with more requirements. It is well known that creating nuclear facilities in a country that previously did not engage in nuclear power engineering results in a massive cumulative effect that benefits the entire economy, as well as said country’s technology and social life.
It is important to choose the right strategy for developing nuclear infrastructure. This is one of our priorities. We are building this work in accordance with all IAEA requirements.
I commend our Egyptian colleagues who, already in the stage of drafting basic documents for building nuclear power plants, have forged a direct dialogue with the Russian regulator and are directly working on legal infrastructure issues.
5. With our full responsibility and taking into account all of the challenges, we specifically build our national infrastructure to secure not only our domestic needs but to fulfill our obligations to our partners.
We launched a separate engineering division to manage nuclear power station design and construction. Last year alone, the division completed three new reactors.
We combined around 30 manufacturing facilities into one cluster, which deals with the production of main and auxiliary equipment. Our production capacities allow producing up to seven sets of complete reactors a year.
In our international projects, we put a significant emphasis on localising production as we understand how important this is for our partners. Specifically, the first nuclear power station projects for Belarus and Turkey may involve local contractors up to 80 percent. We can see large-scale localisation in China during the construction of the second stage of the Tianwan Nuclear Power Plant.
We also understand that modern international projects in nuclear energy require appropriate funding. It is clear to us that both the customer and the contractor could solve this problem. We propose various forms of financial support. We cooperate with governmental and inter-governmental institutions and private corporate investors.
To ensure the long-term, safe operation of the nuclear power station, we have developed a new project management system. The system provides for both administration improvement and knowledge accumulation at all stages of project implementation, including shutdown. Already in the early stages, this technology allows the customer to fully control the construction project and ensure the transparency and monitoring of all operations, and this is very important.
More details about Russian lifecycle management technology are available at the Russian briefing and a special display that was developed especially for you. There, you can take a virtual tour of a nuclear power facility. Please take time to visit both.
We give priority to fundamental and applied research because it provides a foundation for the innovative development of nuclear technology in the mid- and long term. Two years ago, from this tribune, I spoke about the launch of the Multipurpose Fast Research Reactor and our proposal to open an international research centre there. I’m glad to announce that on September 11, 2015, we started laying the foundation for the research reactor. We expect that, by its launch in 2019, there will be an international facility with unique research opportunities technology-wise and economy-wise.
6. Mr Chairman,
To summarise, I would like to note that nuclear energy is traditionally one of the most rapidly developing industries in Russia and the world. This industry requires constant support by a qualified workforce. Therefore, we count on the development of human resources. This is the only successful way to raise future leadership.
Last year, Russian industry-specific universities had over 700 foreign students from 11 countries. There will be even more this year. I’m glad that the competition is 80 students per slot.
The Russian career development system includes school and university education and continuous professional training.
We are creating a communications environment to develop creative thinking and the mentality of safe and efficient production. This July, the anniversary Forsazh international forum for young energy industry professionals and industrialists was attended by over 800 participants from seven countries. For the fifth year, the forum provides a one-off platform for corporate and inter-industrial networking and experience-sharing between students, young professionals and the best Russian experts.
Most importantly, our human potential development model covers a long lifecycle of a nuclear power station and other facilities of the nuclear power industry. We are implementing this model in our country and in the countries that have joined us on the way to the more extensive use of nuclear energy. We would like this to be a project for open international cooperation, with the IAEA playing a leading role.
Thank you.
